Simon Monk

Alida Anderson Art Projects represents the work of British painter Simon Monk... he will be showcased next month at the Affordable Art Fair in New York. Scroll to the bottom to see a video of the artist discussing his work.



Trapped Batman. 2013. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 60 x 50 cm (23.6 x 19.7 inches).


Peter Parker. 2011. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 60 x 50 cm (23.6 x 19.7 inches).


Clark Kent. 2011. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 60 x 50 cm (23.6 x 19.7 inches).
In a private collection in Miami Beach, Florida.


Bruce Wayne. 2012. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 60 x 50 cm (23.6 x 19.7 inches).
In a private collection in Long Beach, California.


Tim Drake. 2012. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 60 x 50 cm (23.6 x 19.7 inches).


Steve Rogers. 2011. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 60 x 50 cm (23.6 x 19.7 inches).


Tony Stark. 2012. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 60 x 50 cm (23.6 x 19.7 inches).
In a private collection in Seattle, Washington.


Dr. Donald Blake. 2011. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 60 x 50 cm (23.6 x 19.7 inches).
In a private collection in Seattle, Washington.


Dr. Bruce Banner. 2011. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 60 x 50 cm (23.6 x 19.7 inches).


The Carrier Bag Week - Tuesday. 2011. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 60 x 50 cm (23.6 x 19.7 inches).
In a private collection in the United Kingdom.


Superhero Bag. 2007. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 24 x 18 cm (9.5 x 7 inches).
In a private collection in the United Kingdom.


The Witching Hour. 2006. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 50 x 35 cm (19.7 x 13.8 inches).
In a private collection in the United Kingdom.


The Phantom Stranger. 2006. Oil and Alkyds on Wood. 50 x 35 cm (19.7 x 13.8 inches).
In a private collection in the United Kingdom.

Trawick Deadline Coming!

Deadline: Monday, April 1  

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards is a visual art prize produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District that honors artists from Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia. The annual juried competition awards $14,000 in prize monies to selected artists and features the work of the finalists in a group exhibition.

Click here to get more information and apply.

Let the Games Begin...

Opportunities for Artists

Deadline: April 5, 2013

The Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center located in historic downtown Frederick, Mayland announces the 2013 Annual Juried Exhibit. Dates: May 4 - June 23. Open to any artist living or working in the United States, all media is eligible, no size restrictions. $1150 in prize money awarded, $500 first prize. Juror: Gerald Ross, Director of Exhibitions at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland. For details on how to enter: http://www.delaplaine.org/exhibits/exhibit-opportunities/

Mark Jenkins in the WaPo

The WaPo's Mark Jenkins with two excellent reviews in the WaPo - check them out here.

Maryland honors artists...

The Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC), an agency of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, has recognized 87 Maryland artists for creating work of exceptional quality within a range of disciplines. This class of outstanding writers, artists and performers was selected from nearly 600 applicants (including yours truly) and awarded grants ranging from $1,000 to $6,000 to advance their artistic careers. This year’s Individual Artist Awards went to artists working within the disciplines of Fiction; Painting; Media/Digital/Electronic Arts; Solo Theatrical Performance; and Works on Paper. Although I was rejected for the billionth time, I congratulate all the artists who received an award - yay!

Portrait of Fair Young Fia as Licensed Royalty by Katherine Miller

Selected submissions by award recipients are available to view at www.msac.org/iaa2013, where information on the artists' home county, artistic discipline and grant amount is also provided.

“Artists and art making in Maryland help fuel our creative economy and expand opportunities for cultural engagement across the state,” said Theresa Colvin, Executive Director of MSAC. “The diverse works of exceptional individual artists is essential to the arts industry, which generates a billion dollars a year in Maryland.”

The MSAC’s competitive Individual Artists Award (IAA) is a program administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation that recognizes the value of artists and their work to the cultural vitality of Maryland. In determining the awards, an out-of-state jury reviews unidentified IAA submissions and recommends grant awards solely on the basis of artistic ability.

Many artists report applying IAA grant funds toward the cost of materials needed to complete their projects. Sculptor David Knopp, a 2012 Individual Artist Award recipient wrote, “Since receiving the award, I have completed two more functional sculptures, and the monetary award supplied the materials to complete them. I will be experimenting with incorporating other hardwoods into my sculptures and hardwoods come at a hefty price. The award will aid in purchasing the lumber.” Knopp, a lifelong Baltimore resident who works a night shift, and spends the days producing art, was later named one of only three 2012 Baker Artists—a prestigious distinction accompanied by a $25,000 grant.

The IAA Program reviews a total of 18 artistic disciplines, which are separated into three competition groups that are awarded once every three years. The 2014 Individual Artist Award will open to applications around June 1, with a deadline of July 26, 2013.  Eligible categories include: Choreography; Classical Music Composition; Classical Music Solo Performance; Poetry; Sculpture; Solo Dance Performance; World Music Composition; and World Music Solo Performance.

A celebration in honor of Maryland’s 2013 Individual Artist Awardees will be held in May.

Frank Hyder at Projects Philly

Projects Gallery Philadelphia (which represents my work in Miami and in Philly) has a great exhibition coming that deserves a mention in DC's best art blog (since I lived in the Philly suburbs from 2006-1009... cough, cough).

They will showcase The Frontier, a solo exhibition by Frank Hyder. Works being featured include mixed media paintings on Mylar and illuminated sculptures. This show is held in conjunction with Hyder’s installation “Sea Dream“ on display in Terminal C of the Philadelphia Airport.

Hyder has reached into his past and leans into the future with this dynamic series of works. For more than thirty years, innovative use of woodcuts such as “Sea Watcher” in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and shaman prints, again part of the PMA and the Library of Congress collections, have been signature works for this native Philadelphian and now Miami resident. In recent years, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas and the Museum of Catholic Art and History in New York City have provided venues for his large-scale installations, combining sculpture, prints and painting to create narratives about the forest and traditions of the Americas.

The Frontier series began as a site-specific installation painting for the Miami Beach host site of the Select Art Fair during Art Basel Miami 2012. The main element of this installation was a 7 x 20 ft. mixed media work on Mylar that filled the stairway glass walls connecting two floors of the fair. Moving up or down these stairs immersed the viewer into the painting and environment of the forest. The work is peppered with digital prints on tracing paper, supplying sporadic bursts of color throughout. The forest is dominated by black and white contrast, a contrast that continues throughout the works of the show. 

Developing on the concept, Hyder has made paintings that focus on these prints and how they are fitted into the invented landscapes that surround them. He continues using this black-and-white-versus-color concept in a series of 3-dimensional LED illuminated prints on shaped Plexiglas, which create a small, lighted installation in one room of the gallery. The artist also steps off the wall here with freestanding sculptures from his “Chrysalis Series.”  These sinuous standing forms are abstractly animated by collaged black and white woodcuts and eerie luminous colored light.

This truly international artist has had over 100 solo exhibitions, including nine in New York City and throughout all of the Americas, Europe and Asia.  In the past year he has shown in Atlanta, Hong Kong, London, Miami, Singapore and Toronto.  He is one of the few North Americans to have had solo exhibitions in major museums in Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela.  Other solo museum exhibitions include the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art’s Museum of American Art, the La Salle Museum of Art, the Susquehanna Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum in California.  For the past several years, he has participated in “Giants in the City,” whose heroic inflatables exhibit during Art Basel Miami. 

His works are in the collections of art museums in Philadelphia, Grand Rapids, Ontario, Caracas and Maracaibo, Venezuela, as well as the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Library of Congress and in numerable corporate and private collections.  Major awards include a Senior Fulbright Research Grant to Venezuela, U.S. Embassy Cultural Grants, MidAtlantic NEA, two Pennsylvania State Council Grants and an International Art Programming Network Partners Grant.  Public commissions include the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program “Hanging Garden of I-95”, “Honey’s” and “Bell’s Pond” wall murals; Terminal Freezer, Oxnard, CA, ceramic wall mural; and the Museo Jacobo Borges “Bridge of Life” ceramic walkway in Caracas, Venezuela.  

The Frontier will run April 5 – June 15, 2013 with an artist reception on First Friday, May 3rd from 6-9. The reception is free and open to the public.  Projects Gallery is located at 629 N. 2nd St. in Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties section. A preview of works may be viewed on the gallery’s website at www.projectsgallery.com. For more information and images, please contact Projects Gallery at 267-303-9652 or info@projectsgallery.com